Privacy is an illusion
同志社国際高等学校

１年

桑

迫華

“There is more private information in your phone, than in your home.”
An advertisement by Apple.
Now, how many of you have wondered, your phone might have a secretmicrophone catching every conversation you had?
In the 21 century, technology has improved more than ever. We have, theself-driving car, bluetooth, the first ever humanoid robot Sophia who evenreceived citizenship and who could forget the most sensational innovation of
all time; social media. Social media is now able to adapt to every individualin their own taste. For example, someone who gives a like on a post about“trendy clothes” would receive an advertisement about fashion. Social media
has somehow managed to provide every individual with a personal system
satisfying their every need and desire.
Today 2.89 billion people have access to social media. This is more than
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half of the global internet usage. Consumers of social media establish theirown mini society using Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook along with others. We
post and upload videos of ourselves just to give a sneak peek of what we are
up to. What we are not aware of is that while doing so, we are providing
valuable data to certain companies. They analyse these data and can tell yourgender, where you live, your political preference and even how much you trust
the people you know and how strong these relationships are.
Cambridge Analytica a political consulting firm has used these tactics to“change audience behaviour.” The company provides service to business andpolitical parties to do just that. They claim by analysing data they cancombine the data with behavioural science which leads them to understandthe consumers personality. They would then be exposed to what behaviours
that individual would take in certain situations. Their purpose is to persuade
or even manipulate others into thinking a certain way their client wants.
The source of their data came from a simple questionnaire before logging

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in or signing into Facebook. Not only of the person who took the quiz but hisor her Facebook friends’, personal information such as messages were exposedto the company. It was estimated that 270,000 Facebook users participated in
the questionnaire, leading 87 million Facebook users data provided to thecompany without their consent. It was not until 2018 that citizens discovered
the truth that their unauthorized data, was being used by a company they
didn’t even know existed.
These companies exist because they understand that we rely on social
media

prettymuch

allthetime.

Theyknowthat

ourmostpersonal

information is just right in our pockets. They know that social media would
have a greater effect on us more than we acknowledge. They know that withsocial media, they could control us.
Privacy is an illusion. Our thoughts are swiftly changed by social media
numerous times and the worst part is that we don’t even recognize it.
Companies

thatareexposed

toourdatacananalyse

ourprivate

characteristics and features predicted from digital records of human behaviour.
As the generation surrounded by social media, we need to understand thatsocial media is not a tool that gives you answers but a tool to help you seek

preference because they want to help us, but because they can benefit from it.
Social media is dominating our thoughts. As Author Erik Qualman said
“we do not have a choice on whether we DO social media,
the question is how well we DO it.”

Bibliography
https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-networkusers/
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/23/17151916/facebook-cambridgeanalytica-trump-diagram
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/what-is-cambridge-analyticafirm-at-centre-of-facebook-data-breach57

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an answer. We must be aware that social media is not just adjusting to ourhttps://www.politico.eu/article/cambridge-analytica-leave-eu-ukip-brexitfacebook/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23479631
https://innovationmanagement.se/2018/05/08/5-innovative-technologies-of-the-21stcentury/

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